Clark: Technology changing the landscape of future generations

Saturday

The older generation scoffs. My generation (Generation X) shows concern. The generation behind me adapts a bit more fluidly. However, it’s the children, 2-, 3- and 4-years old, which will truly be affected.

Most of us “old” folks believe that technology and the tweets, Instagrams and vines that go with along it will ruin the generations that follow. I will concede that things will change. I will concede that I may not necessarily like said changes, but I’m not ready to write off the next generation due to technology and their reliance on it.

We have all seen the kid at the counter struggle with making change when a number is entered incorrectly and he or she must now use brain power. Oh, the humanity.

The next generation will do everything in 140 characters. They will see everything in less than 16 seconds of video. They will, in a nutshell, be more efficient in processing, mapping and responding to information.

Our generation (and I am speaking to anyone over 30) are being led into this technology by our logic. We understand the need for these new technologies such as Twitter, Vine, Snapchat and Instagram (Sorry folks, but Facebook is already outdated) and have meandered our way in their directions. Our jobs, our friends or curiosity have forced us to slowly meld these platforms into our worlds.

Kids born today? They will be a part of these technologies and the technologies will be a part of them. Older people like to call it the “Me” generation, but, frankly, parents have been saying the same thing about their kids since Pharoah Ramesses had issues with the way Moses was acting.

Children born today want everything now — and they will get it. They will want their content uninterrupted and on demand. They will respond and interact about that content much more quickly and much more efficiently. They will get it instantly.

I know some of you are scoffing as you read this. However, I will let you in on a little-known secret: Just because it takes longer to do, make or create … doesn’t mean its better. Sure, some things are better when they are not rushed, but there are many, many things (I can think of at least a three-letter one) which this does not apply.

Children today may also get an added bonus from all of this technology. They may not have to sit through commercial after commercial of nonsense and lies. In today’s ever-evolving world of technology and content, it has become abundantly clear that people do not want commercials, ads or the like invading their space.

Drawn-out, long-winded speeches have been turned into video snippets. Isn’t it great? Haven’t we all, at one point or another had a teacher, boss, co-worker or annoying neighbor that was just so in love with the sound of their own voice they talked in circles without saying a darn thing? Think about being able to turn that “45 minutes that you will never get back” into a two-minute clip.

Children growing up in this day and age — and I am referring to the babies who already know more about an iPad than I do — will be inundated with this fast-moving technology and so well versed it will be “their” world.

Every generation has their own thing, from jazz, to rock and roll to hip hop; from radio to TV to cable. I think this upcoming generation will become the information superhighway’s chief inhabitants. Yes, their collective attention spans will suffer, but there is so much more to take in. And really, we all know plenty of “older” adults that have the attention spans of babies with a spoon.

According to CNN, Instagram was created just over two years ago. It currently has more than 130 million users and more than 45 million photos are posted daily. Vine, the six-second video app introduced in January, became the iTunes app store’s most popular download and had more than 14 million users in just seven months. Snapchat users exchange more than 200 million photos a day (which are immediately deleted … allegedly).

These numbers are staggering. No media outlet operating under the current and outdated business model has ever or can ever hope to approach those kinds of numbers. Children today are hitting the ground running. Toddlers use iPads at 2- and 3-years-old and will be ideally equipped to vault to the next platform.

Academics and so-called experts chastised parents for allowing children to watch television 50 years ago. The same occurred when the telephone was put into mainstream use. Ultimately, however, this generation will be better equipped to mentally to delve through the troves of information out there today.

The irony with life is how as we get older we become less flexible and everything “in our day” was somehow better. The reality is that it wasn’t or it would still be around. If it’s good and it works, it tends to last the test of time. If it isn’t those things, it dies.

Good writing, not like this column, will always be around despite the 140 character limits. Good film-making, despite 16-second limits, will always be around.

And more importantly, intelligence despite its current time limitations, will always be around.

Richard Clark is the universal desk chief for Halifax ENC; his column appears in this space every Sunday. You can reach him at 910-219-8452 or at Richard.Clark@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kpaws22.

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